Doom Advent Calendar 2005

Doom Advent Calendar 2005 is a series of 24 Boom and ZDoom-compatible levels made for Doom and Doom II by the Doomworld Forums community.

The project was started by Kim Bach (Torn) as a smaller community project during the wait for Community Chest 3. The first forum topic was posted on October 9, 2005. In the post, Torn simply asked for Doom levels that could be released later in December in the style of an (i.e.: one each day until Christmas morning). The maps have no set theme, difficulty, texture wad, or style. By request of the original post, anything could be submitted as long as it was Boom-compatible, didn't use port specific difficulty settings, and weren't deemed too poor in terms of quality. Development took place in the topic and stretched all the way to December 1st. At that point, Torn uploaded a map a day on his website until Christmas. Due to the nature of the one-a-day release, the WADs were never compiled into a megawad. Instead they were later given a theme on the /idgames archive.

Legacy
DAC2005 was well received at the time of its release, prompting Torn to attempt a sequel the next year. Despite starting in January, DAC2006 did not get to the goal of 24 maps before December. The initial interest in the project was high, but later on throughout the year the enthusiasm floundered. Although they weren't released in DAC2006, a few levels from the project still got uploaded. James Cresswell (Phobus) made Twisted Joke for DAC2006 and actually lists his interest in contributing as the reason he joined Doomworld. In 2009, Torn attempted to bring back the Doom Advent Calendar. It ended similarly to DAC2006: there was initial interest but not enough maps were made to get to 24 before December.